Dayliss and YCWB report that McGyver-like Chinese smugglers have taken to using ingenious cable and pulley systems, launched from home-spun crossbows and catapults, to smuggle iPhones and iPads back into China. M.I.C. Gadget sums up:

The iPad and iPhones were transported over a small river that separates the booming city of Shenzhen from the rural northern part of Hong Kong using an elaborate pulley system. The cable was shot across the border using a crossbow and the Apple products were flying across at night, which store in black nylon bags. The cable was suspended to a high-rise building in the Chinese border town of Shenzhen, and goods were moved several hundred meters from a small village house located in Hong Kong

No word on whether or no Jackie Chan or Chris Tucker were instrumental in helping Chinese and Hong Kong customs crack the smuggling ring, but we have our suspicions!

[Dayliss and YCWB via M.I.C. Gadget]

Video after the break.

Cardiograph, by MacroPinch, is a new health & fitness application that uses the camera on your iPhone or iPad 2 to measure your heart rate.

Cardiograph is an application, which measures your heart rate. You can save your results for future reference, and even keep track of multiple people with individual profiles.

• Measure Your Heart Rate – Ever wanted to know how fast your heart is beating? It’s never been easier! Use your smartphone’s built-in camera to get an accurate reading almost instantly. Anytime, anywhere.
• Authentic Visual Style – Beautifully designed, authentic visual interface inspired by real-life medical equipment. Watch as every beat of your heart is drawn on paper and reported on the monochrome LCD screen below.
• Authentic Audio Design – The stride for authenticity and the attention to detail carry over to the audio department, with convincing sound effects that wouldn’t sound out of place in a hospital.
• Universal application – Cardiograph is an universal application, which runs on iPad 2, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPod Touch 4th generation.

Cardiograph is available for $1.99. Screenshots after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Google has just updated its Google+ iOS app, claiming it now supports the iPad and iPod touch. Sure it works fine on the iPod touch but incredibly Google’s “iPad support” comes not in the form of a universal binary with proper, native iPad UI, but simply the ability to now install the Google+ iPhone app on the iPad and run it either windowed or in fuzzy 2x mode. Such a disappointment! On a brighter note, if you’re a developer, it does now work with the iOS 5 beta!

Other new features in the update are improved Huddle settings and aggregated circle notifications.

[iTunes link]

TiPb’s developer spotlights are like DVD/iTunes Extras for the App Store — a weekly look behind the scenes at the programers and designers that bring you the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games you love. This week Rene talks with Paul Haddad of Tapbots.

What’s your name? Paul Haddad

What’s your company’s name? Tapbots

Where are you located? Flower Mound, TX

What’s your website address? http://tapbots.com

What’s your Twitter name? @tapbot_paul and @tapbots

What apps do you make? Weightbot, Convertbot, Pastebot, Calcbot, Tweetbot

What apps, other than your own, are currently among your favorites? My favorite Apps tend to be Mac based: Transmit, VMWare, TextMate, VLC, TF2 :^)

How long have you been a developer? Professionally I’d say I’m a bit shy of 20 years, non professionally closer to 30.

How long have you been an iOS developer? Ever since the first iOS SDK came out.

Do you develop for any other platform in addition to iOS? If so, which one(s)? Minor Mac and server side stuff.

What primary computer setup do you use for your iOS development? I use two almost equally depending on where I am in the house. Macbook Pro 17″ i7 2.66GHZ 8GB RAM dual striped OWC 120GB SSDs. Mac Pro 8 core 3GHZ 5 striped 40GB OWC SSDs, Areca RAID controller, 30″ Cinema display, loud mechanical keyboard and kensigton trackball.

What iOS device(s) do you personally use most often? iPhone 4, iPod gen 2 and iPad 2.

What mobile devices, other than iOS, do you currently use? None.

What’s your favorite thing about developing for iOS? I’m a big fan of ObjC and the various frameworks and always have been. I don’t think there’s anything better out there.

What’s your least favorite thing about developing for iOS? Dealing with the entire iTunes connect provisioning setup and waiting for app approvals.

What feature would you most like Apple to add to the iOS SDK? Rich Text editing and general improvements to UITextView are at the top of my list.

What feature would you most like Apple to add to the App Store? Paid upgrades for major new versions. The current free upgrades setup doesn’t encourage developers to update their apps on a long term basis.

What do you do when you’re not coding iOS apps? I’m pretty boring I tend to always be working unless I’m out and about with the kids on the weekend. Lately I’ve gotten hooked on Team Fortress 2.

** Given Tapbots has such a distinctive, restrained catalog of apps, how do you decide which types of apps you want to make? Do you reject a lot of ideas along the way?** We try to focus on apps that we’ll use and sound fun to write. We’re not going to write an app for something that we’ll never do or won’t use because we wouldn’t be able to put our hearts in it. We actually reject a ton of ideas, for every app from us you see there’s probably a dozen that we thought about and decided not to do for one reason or another.

What should we look for from you next? We’re quite busy with Tweetbot but have started thinking about our next app. We’ve got two top contenders but haven’t quite decide which we’ll do yet. We keep saying we’re going to start soon but keep getting pulled away on other Tweetbot features.

Thanks Paul!

CNET drops a big bottle of killjoy juice on recent rumors that Apple might just be ready to rollout their fabled iTunes Replay service — the ability to re-download and stream content to iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV and iTunes on Windows and Mac from the iCloud — or a Netflix-like subscription service.

While Apple has music and now TV available for re-download, at least in the US, apparently they’ve only got agreements with 4 of the 6 big studios needed to add movies to the mix.

One reason is the HBO window. During specific periods of time–often referred to in the film industry as windows–HBO owns the exclusive electronic distribution rights of films from three of the six top films studios: 20th Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros. Any retailer that wishes to sell physical DVDs from these studios during HBO’s window is totally unrestricted. But online retailers are legally prevented from delivering movie downloads from the three HBO-restricted studios during HBO’s window and they also can’t stream titles from those studios. This means that right now iTunes can’t stream a movie to a customer during the HBO window that the customer may have purchased outside of the window.

Broadcast windows are also the reason movies and TV Shows sometimes disappear and reappear from iTunes, Netflix, etc. But the bottom line seems to be, at least for now, that iTunes movie re-downloading, streaming, and subscription services are still a long way off.

[CNET]

Orange in the UK has teamed up with Apple to offer its users a free iTunes movie rental each week, under the name of Films To Go. The service, which is UK only, will offer a different movie each week. The movie will be available to view for 30 days but once you have started watching, you have 48 hours to complete it.

This week's film is My Blueberry Nights with The Wrestler scheduled for next week. To get access to the free movie rentals, Orange customers just need to text FILMTOGO to 85060. You will then be sent a text message with a code to allow the free download via iTunes. The movie can then be viewed on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

One small point to note, when you send the text message to Orange, you do get charged 35 pence for the privilege of receiving the code!

[Orange Film To Go]

 

Fractal Combat, by NEWTYPE K.K., is a flight combat game for the iPhone and iPad.

Futuristic arcade flight combat. Action-packed missile-shooting fest.

• Fast-paced futuristic arcade flight combat
• Breathtaking explosion effects
• 7 unique gorgeous fractal landscapes
• 6 different ships and 2 distinct flight models
• Earn new ships, upgrade weapons, generators, radars
• Dozens of missions to complete
• Game Center’s Leaderboards and Achievements
• Retina and iPad display support
• Intuitive accelerometer and touch controls

What has really drawn my attention to this game is the graphics – they look amazing!

Fractal Combat is available on the iPhone and iPad for $1.99. Screenshots after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Vote for your favorite Android phone in our Readers Choice Awards polls Hands-on with the TouchWiz update for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in NYC Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 TouchWiz update available now Toshiba Thrive review	Research In Motion Introduces New BlackBerry 7 Smartphones Do Not Panic PlayBook owners… Android App Player still looking to be on schedule while you wait, Setup Android player with Android Market on your PlayBook in 15 minutes or less BlackBerry App World 3.0 now in BlackBerry Beta Zone
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Crazy iPhone 5 rumors, leaks, fakes, and more! iCloud.com goes live, and so does extra iCloud storage pricing, iWork for iOS betas, and TV show re-downloads for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV Skype for iPad hits App Store, disappears, comes back	WPCentral is giving away a Windows Phone Skype definitely bringing video calling to Windows Phone, sooner than later First look at Windows Phone Tango and Content Search?

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released an iPhone app called FBI Child ID. If your child goes missing, it must be one of the most stressful things to deal with in life. Most times they just lose track of time and return safe and well, maybe just a few hours late. If they don't however, you need to know what to do and be able to react as fast as possible. This is where the FBI Child ID app comes in.

The free FBI Child ID app provides a convenient place to electronically store photos and vital information about your child so that it's literally right at hand if your child goes missing. You can show the pictures and provide physical identifiers such as height and weight to security or police officers on the spot. Using a special tab on the app, you can also quickly and easily e-mail the information to authorities with a few clicks. The app also includes tips on keeping children safe as well as specific guidance on what to do in those first few crucial hours after a child goes missing

FBI Child ID is free to download and is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad; running iOS 4.2 or later. Screenshots after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

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Georgia and Rene discuss mindfulness and the importance of being in the moment. Enjoying a cup of coffee and listening to a friend. Watching a movie without BBM or dinner without Twitter. If both Yoda and Miagi agree, it has to be ZENandTECH!

• Show notes and homework